Pages

Thursday, February 13, 2014

Blind Speed Dating #41 (A)

Title: THE NAMELESS WARRIOR

Genre: ADULT FANTASY

Word Count: 122,000

Query:

As the last living descendants of the ancient War
God, Kindra Odion inherited his skill with weapons, and her sister inherited
his wings. After their father's suspicious death eight summers ago, Kindra
trained to become her tribe’s first woman warrior, and her sister to become a
priestess. Although Kindra completes the whipping ceremony to make a blood-bond
with the tribe, the War God fails to send the chief a vision of her warrior
name. A warrior with a weak name—or no name at all—isn’t a true warrior in the
eyes of the tribe. Kindra’s determined to earn her name in battle, but her
plans change when the enemy Obsidian tribe claims her sister as restitution for
the last war. To Kindra’s horror, the new chief, Oak, allows them to take her
sister.

When Kindra tries to follow, she's beaten
unconscious at Oak's command. As she recovers, rumors resurface claiming it was
Oak who murdered her father and sold her sister to the enemy. That it was
Oak—not the War God—who refused to grant her a warrior name. Kindra didn’t
believe the rumors in the past, but she begins to doubt the chief.

When the Obsidian chief provides evidence that
the rumors are true, it threatens to fracture her tribe and place it in his
control. As the last Odion warrior, Kindra’s the only one who can depose Oak
and save her tribe, but it will mean giving up the quest to rescue her sister,
and the hope of ever becoming a named warrior.

First 250:

Beads
of sweat trickled down Kindra Odion’s spine as she sat in the vision tent. The
fire had burned to coals. The long white dress of the High Priestess swished
softly as she made her rounds, whispering prayers as she walked with measured
steps between the warrior inductees, blessing their foreheads with oil-soaked
fingers. Kindra’s twin sister, Kaye, followed with a clay pitcher of vision
wine.

The
High Priestess dipped her fingers in the bowl, placed them on Kindra’s
forehead, and whispered her blessing. “May Eoin recognize your spirit and
welcome it as His own. May He bless you with courage in battle, strength to
defeat your enemies, and wisdom to know when the fight is finished.”

Kindra
bowed her head and the woman moved on. Kaye stepped into her place and handed
Kindra the pitcher. “May Eoin bless you with a vision of victory,” she said with
a small smile. The words were the same she said to all of the inductees, but
the smile was for her alone.

Kindra
returned the smile and tipped the pitcher back, swallowing the bitter wine. It
ignited a fire in her stomach—the fire of Eoin’s spirit—and her arms and legs
began to tingle.

Kaye
moved on and Kindra stared at the coals, waiting for the wine’s full effect.
Outside, the new moon symbolized the death of their childhood. Tomorrow they
would be whipped to prove their strength and mark them as Eoin’s chosen
protectors. Warriors. Kindra would be the first woman chosen in the tribe’s
existence.